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Re: VN on allegory?
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Date
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To R S Gwynn:
I found this excerpt from a piece written by an 18 year old girl. The entire article, in my opinion as a non-academic, was one of the best I have read. It is a biographical presentment, titled: The Nabokovian Aesthetic Bliss and its Invocations. The young lady's web name is simply, thatsanicecoat. This might give you a starting place.
Some believe Lolita to be an allegory of the writer and his art, “Old Europe debauching young America”, or “Young American debauching Old Europe”. However, it was self-professed that Nabokov detested allegories and symbols (Nabokov... The Annotated, 314). In the same way, Nabokov also dismissed cliches, saying, in effect, “Because cliches trivialize, betray or deny the uniqueness of the thought, memory or perception struggling to find expression, they are finally an affront to consciousness itself,” (Quennell, 26). Many accused Nabokov, this lover of beauty, of creating “sheer unrestrained pornography”. While this might have some ground if the accuser merely understands the premise of the novel, the opening line destroys this theory as Lolita comments on the abuse of power and literature itself. The novel is professed to be a “powerfully ironic parody of cheap mass literature” (Oks, 50). In Nabokov’s essay, On a Book Entitled
Lolita, he says, regarding its banned nature:
________________________________
From: R S Gwynn <Rsgwynn1@CS.COM>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:17:54 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] VN on allegory?
I recall reading some dismissive remarks that VN made about allegory as a literary mode, but I can't recall where. Does anyone remember where this was? Probably in the Lectures on Literature, but I just can't remember in what context he said these remarks.
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I found this excerpt from a piece written by an 18 year old girl. The entire article, in my opinion as a non-academic, was one of the best I have read. It is a biographical presentment, titled: The Nabokovian Aesthetic Bliss and its Invocations. The young lady's web name is simply, thatsanicecoat. This might give you a starting place.
Some believe Lolita to be an allegory of the writer and his art, “Old Europe debauching young America”, or “Young American debauching Old Europe”. However, it was self-professed that Nabokov detested allegories and symbols (Nabokov... The Annotated, 314). In the same way, Nabokov also dismissed cliches, saying, in effect, “Because cliches trivialize, betray or deny the uniqueness of the thought, memory or perception struggling to find expression, they are finally an affront to consciousness itself,” (Quennell, 26). Many accused Nabokov, this lover of beauty, of creating “sheer unrestrained pornography”. While this might have some ground if the accuser merely understands the premise of the novel, the opening line destroys this theory as Lolita comments on the abuse of power and literature itself. The novel is professed to be a “powerfully ironic parody of cheap mass literature” (Oks, 50). In Nabokov’s essay, On a Book Entitled
Lolita, he says, regarding its banned nature:
________________________________
From: R S Gwynn <Rsgwynn1@CS.COM>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 10:17:54 PM
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] VN on allegory?
I recall reading some dismissive remarks that VN made about allegory as a literary mode, but I can't recall where. Does anyone remember where this was? Probably in the Lectures on Literature, but I just can't remember in what context he said these remarks.
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/